U.S. Members of Congress Live
on a Food Stamp Budget

October 30, 2007

Congressman Van Hollen reflects on living on the Food Stamp Challenge for one week:

The Food Stamp Challenge brings home the struggle that many Americans face on a daily basis. It quickly focuses your mind and your stomach on just how little food $21 a week buys. It also demonstrates that it is difficult, if not impossible, to eat a balanced diet on $21, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. I was feeling very cranky by the end of the week.

It wasn't a lot, but I was disappointed, knowing that I couldn't just pour another glass to make up for what I had lost. I am currently on day five of the food stamp challenge, which asks participants to live for one week on the nation's average food stamp benefit of $21 - that's $3 per day, $1 per meal. I have carefully allotted my milk for the week and more just wasn't an option if I planned to have any for Saturday.

That is the crux of the challenge: to provide a small glimpse into the choices that people who use food stamps must make each day. And while I haven't been noticeably hungry yet, the tough choices people make are increasingly obvious.

The challenge got rolling last summer in Pennsylvania when the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger asked local residents to commit to living on the amount of the average food stamp benefit. The Coalition credits a local food bank with the initial idea, but the most important point is that word spread quickly after a Philadelphia reporter wrote about his experience, said Ellen Vollinger, legal director for the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based non-profit that has tracked the evolution of the challenge.

Various community groups then picked up on the idea after it was highlighted by FRAC and other organizations. When a group of Oregon hunger leaders challenged their governor, Democrat Ted Kulongoski, to participate, his acceptance drew national attention. Soon a bipartisan group of governors and congressional representatives from across the county was joining in.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who represents a large part of Montgomery County and a slice of Prince George's County, is among the newest crop of national leaders taking the challenge.

"It quickly focuses your mind and your stomach on just how little $21 a week pays," said Van Hollen on the third day of his challenge experience. The congressmen did his shopping in a Wheaton Giant and had so far spent only $16 - with green peas, lentils, beans, pre-sliced turkey, two tomatoes, an onion and bananas making up the bulk of his list - in order to give himself some wiggle room as the week draws to a close.

Van Hollen is completing the food stamp challenge in conjunction with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which included the challenge in their year of action to draw attention to hunger and poverty in the U.S.

"The reason you do it is to raise awareness about the inadequacy of the food stamp benefit," said Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Council, an umbrella organization for 13 national and 125 local Jewish organizations.

The challenge coincides with congressional consideration of the Farm Bill, which includes the food stamp program, the minimum benefits of which have not been raised since the mid-1970s. The House of Representatives recently passed their version of the bill with language that is a little better, according to Susskind, and debate is now focused in the Senate.

"I just wanted to get a real-world sense of what it means to survive on the average food stamp allocation, just to get a sense of what people go through," said Van Hollen. Among the immediate lessons he reports are the limitations in food variety, the inability to shop in bulk and the difficulties of maintaining a nutritious diet.

From my end, the lessons have been similar. I'm sick of peanut butter, craving fresh vegetables and was frustrated by my options within the grocery store as I had to buy more than I needed of certain items, forcing me to neglect others. I don't need a full box of pasta for the week or a whole bag of rice, and that money could have gone to other items like vegetables.

Granted the challenge occurs in a vacuum, and if I were to live on this budget for more than seven days I would probably have a stock of certain items that I did not need to buy every week. However, the challenges of timing - and of the very adequacy of benefit - are quite real for actual food stamp recipients, said Vollinger.

Food banks around the country provide anecdotal reports that their client load increases at the end of each food stamp period, according to Vollinger. "That would suggest that while it's true that the program was designed to be a supplement, people don't have enough resources," she said. Furthermore, far more people are eligible for benefits than those that receive them.

In August, in Montgomery County, 24,720 individuals received food stamp benefits and statewide there were 332,353 recipients, according to the Maryland Department of Human Resources. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicate, however, that a scant majority -- 53 percent -- of those eligible in Maryland received benefits in 2004.

Other issues of timing have also illustrated the difficulties the current food stamp benefits present. I was originally assigned to begin my challenge the same day as Van Hollen. However, I started the day after because I was taking an important standardized test the previous morning and didn't want to deal with it yet. I had that choice - something the average food stamp recipient doesn't have.

I'm pretty confident I'll make it through the next three days. I still have, after all, half a dozen eggs, three apples, one yam, half a box of pasta, one quart of milk, six pieces of bread, six slices of cheese, half a bag of rice, four packs of instant noodles and half a jar of peanut butter.

Like I said, I haven't been extremely hungry, and while I know the diet isn't nutritious it's enough to keep me going. One more confession though.

Saturday is my last day, and I plan to quit as soon as I scarf down an early dinner so that I can go out with my older brother for his birthday. I'm willing to bet drinks and dinner (take two) are in order. The conclusion of my week spent on a food stamp diet will be a celebration.

October 09, 2007

The farm bill, which includes the Food Stamp Program, is up for reauthorization. This past summer, some members of Congress and others took the Food Stamp Challenge, spending only $21 on food for a week to focus attention on the program's inadequacies. It's been more than 10 years since any money has been added to the Food Stamp Program, and it is not indexed for inflation.

Although food stamps were intended to be a supplemental program, most recipients rely primarily on food stamps to put food on their tables. According to the California Budget Project, it takes $50,383 a year for a California family of four - with one working parent - to make ends meet and $72,343 if both parents work (higher in Santa Clara County), but a family of four is eligible for food stamps only if its gross annual income doesn't exceed $26,004.

What can you eat for $3 a day? Mostly carbohydrates. Oakland Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee's diet consisted primarily of crackers, a loaf of whole-wheat bread, tortillas, and brown rice. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, filled up on 19-cent banana-and-peanut butter sandwiches. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., said he would've killed for a candy bar or a cup of coffee. "I've had enough lentils for three years. For us, this is an exercise that ends Tuesday. For millions of people, this is their life," he said.

Feeling full on $3 a day is one challenge; eating nutritionally is virtually impossible. Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky's week's worth of fruits and vegetables consisted of one tomato, one potato, a head of lettuce, and five bananas.

Health problems are a likely result of the food stamp diet because the cheapest foods are carbs: bread, tortillas, crackers, rice, beans, ramen and noodles. It's easy to see why type 2 diabetes is an epidemic in America. No longer is it called adult-onset diabetes because it affects so many children. Eric Schockman, president of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, noted other problems after a week eating a lot of canned beans and generic macaroni and cheese (because his childhood favorite brand was too expensive). The diet "was physically debilitating and emotionally exhausting. I was lethargic and found that I lacked my usual enthusiasm for getting through the day. I had difficulty reading, writing, communicating - doing anything other than anticipating (and, in some ways, dreading) my next meal."

Certainly, not all poor, diabetic, and overweight people make wise food choices, but for the poor, wise choices aren't as available. Unlike those who took the one-week challenge, they don't have a newspaper to search for sales or a car to drive to the stores featuring them. In Sunnyvale, there are only two supermarkets north of El Camino Real. Rather than paying bus fares for themselves and children, our clients usually walk to smaller neighborhood markets that don't carry the volume of fresh fruits and vegetables necessary for affordable prices.

Sunnyvale Community Services, a non-profit, emergency assistance agency, provides financial aid to low-income families and seniors facing temporary crises to prevent eviction and utility disconnection or to access otherwise unaffordable medical care. Our food program statistics show the skyrocketing need for food. The number of families participating in our monthly food programs doubled in the past six years from 600 to 1,280. Over the same period, the value of the food we distributed increased from $430,000 to more than $1 million a year.

So what are some actions we can take to try to improve the Food Stamp Program? Contact our state's U.S. senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to urge their support both of increasing money for the Food Stamp Program and of indexing it for inflation. Have out-of-state family and friends contact their senators. Check the California Food Policy Advocates Web site (www.cfpa.net) for farm bill updates and lobbying tips. Conduct food drives for agencies like Sunnyvale Community Services-emergency assistance agencies and meal programs and the Second Harvest Food Bank. As Schakowsky put it, "Healthy food should not be viewed as a luxury."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------NANCY S. TIVOL is executive director of Sunnyvale Community Services. She wrote this article for the Mercury News.

October 07, 2007

Playing at being poor might seem offensively useless. But it can serve a purpose.Living in poverty is not the free and easy ride that go-get-a-job critics who rail against taxpayer-funded public assistance programs would have us believe.

Living on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, transportation vouchers and child care subsidies is tough.That point can be made real for people who live much more comfortable lives through exercises that help them better understand what it means to be poor. United Way of Roanoke Valley board members and other community leaders last week participated in a poverty simulation.

They assumed the roles of low-income people -- a single, working father raising a 3-year-old; an arthritic elderly woman; a grandparent caring for a grandchild. Then they set out to find food, secure child care and health care, and make sure they had a place to rest their heads at night.Pretending to be poor for a few hours might seem feckless when one has a warm bed and refrigerator full of food to go home to. But a simulation can at least give people who are in positions to effect change a taste of the difficulty of life on limited means.

Such exercises can be perceived as political stunts when practiced, for instance, by members of Congress.Earlier this year, four House members attempted to highlight the failings of food stamp benefits by pledging to live for one week on $21 worth of food, what the average food-stamp recipient receives. It wasn't easy.

Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan didn't last the week. Jars of peanut butter and jelly he'd stuffed in carry-on luggage were confiscated at an airport, leaving him with nothing but a bag of cornmeal to carry him through the challenge's final days. He was caught eating a pork chop in a hotel restaurant because he feared he'd be too weak to deliver a commencement speech.

"It just showed me that when you're living on food stamps, you're really one event away from disaster," Ryan told The Washington Post. "Some people are constantly living on that edge."There is merit in pretending to walk that perilous edge, if it provides a truer sense of how the poor manage from day to day.

Never mind the appearance of showboating. What's important is that action follows.

September 18, 2007

Three well-known rabbis will join two Congress members in living for a week on meals worth a dollar.

Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of Reform's Religious Action Center, Rabbi Steve Gutow, the director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network will join Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Congress' only Muslim, and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) in taking on JCPA's "Food Stamp Challenge." .

The challenge, to be launched today, is aimed at protesting food stamp subsidies that JCPA, the umbrella body for Jewish policy makers, and other anti-poverty groups say force the poor to dine on meals costing no more than a dollar. Leaders in some 20 Jewish communities across the United States will also participate. Saperstein tied the challenge to efforts in Congress to expand food stamp funding through the pending Farm Bill.

Ellison will be joined at a news conference today by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. They, and others, plan to live for a week on $21 -- the national average for food stamp benefits.

Ellison and others will announce a weeklong "Food Stamp Challenge." One of the goals is to raise the minimum food stamp benefit.

Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, is the first Muslim elected to Congress. The week that he and the rabbi will join the challenge falls during Islam's holy month of Ramadan and between the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Food Frenzy. Congressional ethics reforms has everyone on watch — cocktail wieners on a toothpick, OK; pasta with a fork, bad. But this week, three more Members of Congress will be partaking in the Food Stamp Challenge and abstaining from pilfering Congressional receptions for free food.

Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison (Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) on Friday became the latest Members to take the challenge, starting a weeklong strict diet in which they will try to live on $21, the average amount food stamp recipients get. Ellison, for one, has a leg up on his colleagues. The only Muslim in Congress already has to experience fasting during the holy season of Ramadan, which began last week, and so far, Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert says he hasn’t heard of his boss having any problems keeping to the limited budget.

While passing on overcooked meatballs might not seem like a hardship, it was only a few months ago that Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) fell off the wagon midway through the challenge. At the time, an HOH tipster reported that Ryan was caught sipping a cup of coffee at Ebenezer’s Coffee House in Capitol Hill, while reportedly wearing a T-shirt promoting the campaign.

From Sept. 14-21, Rabbi Steve Gutow, Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Director of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network, and Lois Frank, Chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs are participating in the Food Stamp Challenge and are encouraging others to join them.

June 14, 2007

Friday, I had grits and toast for breakfast, crackers and a banana for lunch and two hamburgers from White Castle ($.51 apiece) for dinner.

On Saturday, I skipped breakfast. We held a press conference at the Discount Grocery in Berkeley, which is one of the few places where people on a low budget can get some nutritious food. I bought a small container of chicken and dumplings, an apple, a can of tuna, a box of macaroni and cheese and a can of turnip greens (total $2.25). I hadthe chicken and dumplings for lunch and skipped dinner.

Sunday I skipped breakfast and lunch and made a macaroni and tuna casserole, with greens on the side, for dinner and half a can of peaches for dessert.

Monday morning I finished the peaches and had an apple raisin and carrot bar (purchased Sunday $1.40) on the plane back to D.C. For dinner it was two bean burritos.

When I finished the challenge it was a relief, but not as much as I had imagined at first. As the days went on, I found that I became less hungry, or maybe more accustomed to being hungry. My first meal after the challenge ended was a tuna sandwich, which was good, but I found I was not all that hungry. The same is true with other things, like coffee. During the first few days, I missed my regular lattes (I even got headaches from the caffeine withdrawal), but by the end of the week I had completely forgotten about it.

One thing I have noticed, however, is how conscious of the price of food I have become. I bought a plate of fruit at the cafeteria, and and I ended up paying $3.50 for 14 little piece of fruit, which is outrageous! I am definitely more conscious of how much food costs and how much money is wasted on food by those not on a limited budget.

I know I mentioned before that, having had this experience I can see how people forced to eat on such a budget could develop health problems, but I am certain that the stress of worrying about how to afford to eat is part of it. I have no problem imagining that people on food stamps could get high blood pressure just worrying about how to budget their food expenses.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who tuned in to read about my experience. Obviously, this isn't about me, it's about raising awareness about hunger in the richest country in the world, and it is about building support for a Farm Bill and a Food Stamp Program that reaches more of the people in this country who are hungry and provides them with more than just $1 per meal.

June 09, 2007

In an effort to help raise hunger awareness, Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee took on the “Food Stamp Challenge,” Tuesday to live on just $21 for one week. With three days left, Lee is down to just $4.00.

A Democrat from California’s 9th Congressional District, Lee is one of several legislators who took on the challenge. She knows from past experience what it is like to live off food stamps.

"We decided to participate in this challenge to help raise the level of awareness and really inform the public that food stamp recipients live on $21 a week, $3 a day," said Lee. "Hopefully through this campaign we will help those who are eligible for food stamps understand that they should apply and that there are some of us who are trying to increase the amount so they can get on their feet."